I love seeing all the colors and sights of fall! I have to stop and wonder what some of the smells of fall are associated with. Yesterday I smelled a sour smell from a sugar maple's leaves decomposing. Where only a week ago you could only smell the crushed acorns on the road, now the world has changed and the senses tell me a different story. I have been pondering a lot of things and I am not sure if that is because of some of the recent events in my life or merely the change that autumn brings and the innate desire to prepare for the upcoming winter.
I am very inspired by the leaves and the changes in scenery. I guess the whole circle of life is simply manifest more fully right now. I have been busy with some important things and as my poor neighbors can attest I have neglected to keep up on the leaves and winterize my yard and do other (in my opinion) less important things. After all, the leaves keep falling and if I don't fertilize my yard it will still come up green in the spring. (albeit because of dandelions where others insist there should be grass!)
I am starting to learn the value of certain things we do and the priorities we place on things, actions, or habits. I am finding that not keeping up on the yard for example will not be something I regret at the end of my life whereas missing my children's growth or remembering great times are the things that will mean the most. Yes I do feel we should have a house of order and I am not advocating a sloppy or rundown property but I am not convinced I need to spend much time on areas where the fruit does not merit the cost and energy put into it's growing. Basically I am just commenting on the purpose of life and what kind of fruit we will have to show for it and what will be of value and what will have proved to be pointless. As for my yard... it'll be here long after I am gone whether I rake today or not for another week!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
The Important Things. (My yard care thoughts)
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8 comments:
And that my family, is why we're moving to the country! Oh, not today, but hopefully tomorrow :)
Doh, that was me!
Well said...well said. I say build tall, tall privacy fences and then do yer own thang!
I agree with putting family first! In regards to your yard care, don't you find it almost exciting, accelerating to go out in the yard and rake a huge pile of leaves while your children stand by ready to see what the leaves will feel like when they jumping head first. I guess even though the little things don't matter, sometimes I think a lot more can be accomplished by doing those little things with your little ones there evolved, getting a taste of what this earth has to offer. I loved the experience my kids had helping me weatherize my garden. It needed to be done and I could have easily done it myself but the experience I had watching them get fascinated goes beyond the responsibility of getting a dirty job out of the way. You can make anything worth it with the right way of looking at it!
I agree with all that you said, Joel, and also Suzanne's comment about getting kids invovled. I remember my own childhood - we were always "helping," and someone was ALWAYS singing that "When you're helping you're happy" song. Always. But we helped with all of it - leaf raking, dishwashing, pie making, bathroom cleaning (Mom didn't seem very fussed about letting her young children use those chemicals! Explains a lot about me!).
I've reading a book recently, a memoir about someone's life on an Iowa farm during the 1930s, and I realize that life then, for children, invovled much more work and responsibility than for today's children. I don't know if it could ever be that way again, short of farm life.
What's that quote? Goes something like, "On your deathbed you won't wish you'd spent more time at the office..."
I agree with Suz and Beth too, but I think Joel was trying to say how some people obsess over it and we just don't care very much about it looking "spectacular" all the time. That doesn't mean it doesn't mean we don't do it or that it doesn't make us feel good when it looks nice or that we don't have a blast raking with the kids. Just that we don't care about other people seeing our yard and being impressed, so this town may not be the town for us.
One big reason that Joel and I want to move and start a hobby farm is to work with our children and really teach them the meaning of real hard work. Some of the best childhood memories were of me working with my family. Sigh...someday we'll have our country living.
But of course we can teach them now, and we're starting too.
All I can say is, who has time for a perfect yard anyway? (Apparently, at least one of my neighbors. Sigh.)
The only thing we really have here on earth is our time. Thanks, Joel, for making everybody consider how we spend it!
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